Divine Temptation

BOOK SUMMARY:

Maggie Brock has everything under control.  Even her divorce, though painful at the time, registers only as a minor blip in her carefully constructed universe. Life in Prairie Oaks has once again returned to a smooth, predictable pace…until an angel shows up in her bedroom.

The angel is just as bewildered as Maggie about why he’s been sent to her, but their unsuccessful efforts to gain understanding of the mystery fade to the background as their relationship grows. Soon, Maggie’s biggest problem becomes the angel himself, as her feelings for him develop into something less than saintly.

While Maggie struggles to keep her desires pure, a nefarious being lurks in the shadows of Prairie Oaks, watching and waiting for the opportunity to fulfill his ambiguous purpose. Preying on her conflicted emotions, the demon manipulates her at every opportunity, but the one to deliver Maggie directly into his hands is the last person she’d expect.

Divine Temptation Quotes

I chose a quote from DIVINE TEMPTATION to represent each of my four favorite qualities in any story.

Something funny:

“How ironic that the very symptom of my insanity also serves as my therapist.”

Something to cause ado:

She’d treasured every minute, but being with him was beginning to inspire more conflict within her than serenity.

Something sexy:

She didn’t dare expose her heart the way she’d exposed her body.

And something true:

“You might not believe in the devil, but do you believe evil lurks in this world?”

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Writing wasn't something Nicki set out to do; it just sort of happened when she realized writing reports was by far her favorite part of her investment consulting position. She traded stock allocation and diversification for story arcs and dialogue and now weaves her creative writing time in with the other activities of her busy life with her family in the Chicago suburbs.

Nicki writes with two goals in mind: #1 to keep the characters realistic, even when their circumstances are anything but, and #2 to make the reader feel. Her published works include Three Daves, a light-hearted romantic romp through a 1980s college campus, Divine Temptation, a romantic novel of angelic proportions, and short stories “Sway” (available as a single), “I Don’t Do Valentine’s Day” (part of A Valentine Anthology), and “Impressionism 101” (included in the debut issue of Insatiable: The Magazine of Paranormal Desire).

Creating a Book Cover: Flirting with Chaos

I love Book Covers. I have an awesome New Adult Contemporary Romance with coming out Fall 2013. 

Currently, Omnific and I are in the first stages of the publishing process to make sure everything is perfect, which means editing, revising, and more editing. 

But, I LOVE COVERS! So I asked my good friend and talented artist

Jackie Sheats

to make me a Mock Cover for my book Flirting with Chaos and explain her process to us. 

First let me tell you what I asked for....

Flirting with Chaos deals with two mentally unstable rich kids, Rain and Jude. Rain is an artist. Jude is a rising rock star. 

In this book, I played with the idea of how insanity influences artists' creation process as well as how it could impact love. Rorschach signs

come up a lot in the book, as art, theme, and within the plot-line. FYI, the Rorschach test is several inkblots used by psychologists to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. 

So I asked Jackie to incorporate the Rorschach symbol in the cover. Let's check out her work!

Jackie Explaining Her Process

1. The first thing I do is put my lovely source images onto one canvas. Generally when working on a book cover I use these settings for a new file. 1500x2400px 200dpi.

What do those settings mean? It means about 4 hours in my computer starts freaking out because it's over worked. Unlike myself, I am a well oiled machine!

Those settings for your file are about as big as a cover will ever be requested for upload. I choose to do it the biggest as possible. I do this because bigger is always better.

Also it is easier to go smaller then bigger when it comes to working with photos. The 200 dpi is the resolution which I have found to be perfect to not over work my computer, and it is the perfect medium.

2. With both my images on the same canvas I flick this magic switch that turns the top layer (the man and woman) into a clipping mask. Translated, it will only show where the ink blot is. 

Neat huh? Well it gets better.



3. To make it more believable I use a soft brush to erase the areas in the ink blot that are meant to be white. Also I start to fade the image of the man and woman so you can see the ink blot, and also draws your attention to the center. So basically making your eye do what I want it to, because I have that kind of power.

4. I add the check, play around with some settings. Work even more magic because I am a wizard. Use a soft brush with adjusted settings to fade some black in. Make that white not so white.

5. Finally, I use some layer effects to doll up the text. Throw a stroke in there, a drop shadow, and a little stain. What comes out is brilliant cover, a day spent at my computer, and a very sore back end. 

Don't even think this is easy. This was just one of about 12 different designs I went through. I just make it all look that easy.

Thanks Jackie!
JNSheats.com

She also went through this process a whole lot because I am a crazy author that didn't know what I wanted. We went through several covers before I finally picked one. 

Check out the others!

If you're interested in the release of Flirting with Chaos, go to my website Kenya Wright and sign up to follow by email!!

Book Review & Giveaway: Corporate Affair

Book Summary: A smart, sexy entrepreneur. A wealthy, arrogant ladies’ man set on purchasing her company. And a hot bed of chemistry neither one of them anticipated.

My Review

Favorite Scene:
     Aiden reached out and closed the door behind her. He took her by both arms and turned her until they were face to face. 
     “I don’t want a drink,” he said. “I want you.” 
     He pulled her in to him and held her against his chest. She lay her cheek on the soft cotton of his shirt. The song of his beating heart sounded in her ear. 
     “Please stay,” he said, bending his head to hers.
     Jordan didn’t reply. She answered with her lips, lifting her face to his, seeking his mouth with hers. 

Thoughts:

               This was an easy and FUN read. It took me two days to devour it. The narrative voice flowed with ease. As you can see from the teaser excerpt above, it was a hot page-turner.

               I think that what knocked the book down from five stars to me is that at times I found the plot-line predictable and I just prefer a Darker type of contemporary romance. This novel leaned more on the sweet side. 

                Additionally, Aiden represented the typical hero--playboy, not ready to settle down or take women seriously. I adored that, but I craved more. Let's face it. . .I wanted Aiden to be a DICK! He wasn't. He was a nice playboy. I prefer my playboys to be balancing on the tip of asshole and gentleman (Yes. I'm a sicko). 

                However, Jordan was a fresh new character for this genre. She possessed a spunk that I usually don't see with contemporary romance heroines. I so so so so LOVED that she was a Mother! Loved! Jordan was the reason why I turned the page. I really wanted to see how things would turn out for her.

All and all, grab it if you love a rich guy romance with a strong heroine!

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Author Website     Blog

Linda has written steadily throughout the years, but usually other people’s papers, speeches, or articles for agricultural trade magazines. Her only published work of fiction was a children’s book, “The Copper Angel of Piper’s Mill”, written in 1988 when her children were still small. Now that the kids are out of the house, Linda is writing fiction again, and this time it’s personal! She writes full time and it’s Romance! Her first romance novel, “Small Town Girl” is being published by Omnific Publishing and should be available late summer/early fall of this year.

Linda lives in a romantic stone house in the green mountains of Vermont surrounded by her gardens and her animals who include horses, sheep, cats, dogs, chickens, a parakeet and various wildlife visitors who wander in and out at will. When time permits, she also enjoys sketching and painting.